


Blackboards: An Alexheed Short

by hufflepuffingdemigod



Category: The Unwanteds Series - Lisa McMann
Genre: Alexheed - Freeform, M/M, There's an annoying unnamed blackboard who we should all stan, okay enjoy, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28693104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepuffingdemigod/pseuds/hufflepuffingdemigod
Summary: my first ever alexheed fic. it all spawned from the moment the line "what are you gonna do, burkesh? gonna kiss me?" popped into my head. after that, this basically wrote itself.
Relationships: Alex Stowe/Samheed Burkesh
Kudos: 2





	Blackboards: An Alexheed Short

Alex tossed yet another book into the pile, which contained Platyprots and their Properties, a book about the jungle creatures- which he was a little too nervous to approach quite yet- a guide on how to fix a tube- that would've come in handy at Ishibashi-san, Ito-san, and Sato-san's island- a memoir of-

"STOWE!"

Good grief. Alex rolled his eyes, wincing as yet another bellow rang through the halls.

"STOWE! WHERE ARE YOU? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT ME HANGING LIKE THAT! I-"

For Pete's sake! Alex thought in irritation. He's going to shake the whole mansion! I didn't leave him hanging, I told him distinctly that I couldn't make it!

It was true- Alex had told Samheed that he couldn't help him out in the theatre while they'd been sitting on the lawn- Sam had been scribbling in his notebook at a feverish pace, jotting down whatever new ideas he'd come up with in- oh. Perhaps it hadn't been the best choice to try and talk to Sam while he was writing.

"Stowe!"

Samheed appeared in the door with a shout, marching toward Alex with fury in his already fiery orange eyes. Alex stood up quickly, brushing off Mr. Today's robe. He backed up a pace.

"How could you just ditch me?" Sam exploded. "You were literally my last resort! Lani was busy, and Meghan was teaching Sky how to sing, and Henry and Crow were off doing goodness knows what, and I couldn't exactly ask Simber to-"

"I didn't ditch you!" Alex interrupted, cutting through Samheed's angry ranting.

Sam strode forward. Alex stepped backward. He realized his back was to the bookshelf. For whatever reason, the position set him on edge.

"Really, because, hey! Look at that!" Samheed looked around dramatically, imbibing, as he often did, a little bit of the stage into every movement. "You're not in the theatre right now, are you? No, you're not! You're off in the library, sifting through-"

"I told you I wasn't coming!" Alex shot back.

"When?"

"When you were writing on the lawn!"

"When I was- when I was writing?" Sam swung his hand through the air incredulously. "I'm not LISTENING to you when I'm writing, I have better things to do than-"

"Well that's not my fault, is it?" Alex shouted.

"Yes it is!" Sam retorted wildly.

"How the bulbous bumbleberries is that my fault?" Alex cried, waving his arms exasperatedly.

"Because- I- whatever Stowe!" Sam waved his hands around in frustration, then leaned them on either side of Alex's head, on the shelf. Alex swallowed, absently fiddling with the fringe of Mr. Today's robe.

"I told you I was busy, Sam. It's not my fault you weren't listening."

"What exactly are you so busy with, anyway? It looks like you're just messing around with the books to me- like you could do ANY OTHER DAY."

Though Sam wasn't shouting anymore, he still sounded pretty angry. Alex reminded himself that Sam thought Alex had blown him off- he didn't know why Alex hadn't shown up. Still, it was hard to keep the edge out of his voice as he snapped,

"Like I told you before, I had a crisis."

Sam deflated slightly, still propping himself up against the shelf, still too close to Alex.

"A crisis?"

"Yes. A crisis. And as Head Mage, it is MY responsibility to deal with crises."

"What sort of crisis?"

"Some jerk-" Alex cut himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I mean, some . . . wonderful Artiméan accidentally messed up all the blackboards. I have no idea how, but they were all blank, and none of them were talking. So, I had to go through this entire library-" He gestured sweepingly to the frenetic room, "-to find Mr. Today's book on blackboards."

"Oh. That sucks. Well, I guess that explains why Stuart wasn't answering me." Samheed grumbled.

"Well . . . when was that?"

"Uh, about five minutes ago- I was trying to get him to find you for me. Um, obviously he wasn't helping me." Sam winced as he remembered his loud rampage through the mansion.

"Uh, yeah. That wasn't why. He just hates you." Alex snorted as Samheed scowled, kneeing Alex in the leg.

Then Sam paused. "Wait, so you fixed the blackboards? When, exactly?" Samheed's voice took on a mildly dangerous tone as Alex groaned. "About . . . half an hour ago," he admitted reluctantly.

"Half an hour!" Samheed exploded. "So you didn't think to come to the rehearsal after you fixed the stupid boards?"

"I didn't figure I needed to, since I TOLD you I wasn't COMING!" Alex shouted.

Samheed took a step even closer, and now he was way too close. Completely too close. Sam opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it and just glowered at Alex, like words could not possibly express the complete betrayal he felt.

"I swear, Stowe, I could just- I'm going to-" However, he didn't seem to be quite sure what he was going to do.

Alex huffed. "What are you gonna do, Burkesh? Going to kiss me?" He had no idea where that came from. Good grief, why in all the seven islands would he say that?

But Sam just raised his eyebrows, jutting his chin sharply in challenge. "Maybe I will, Stowe."

"Go ahead," Alex said jauntily.

And then Samheed did.

It was fast. It was rough. But it was enough that Alex was completely shaken to the core.

Samheed pulled back, his forearms leaning on either side of Alex's head now- Alex was resting against the shelf.

"I- um . . ." Alex said intelligently. It occurred to him that he should probably respond like a normal human, but he couldn't quite figure out what to say.

Finally he managed to respond with, "You actually did it . . ."

Sam scoffed. "Of course I did, you dolt."

Alex glanced at him quickly, and Samheed rushed on, "I wasn't about to turn down a challenge, was I?"

"Ah."

Samheed looked down to his left, his deep, marigold-in-a-sunset eyes narrowed slightly. The air between them seemed charged with electricity, like they were their own personal Hurricane Island. Alex studied him, his dark lashes, which were surprisingly long, his strong jaw, dark brows, and his hawkish nose. He noted the exact shade of Sam's skin- a sort of light, coffee brown- but no, it depended on the lighting. It looked darker than it really was right now in the dim light of the Museum's library. Alex would need to look at it in the bright white light of Miss. Octavia's classroom if he wanted to get the right paint colour. Alex observed the exact positioning of the scars on Sam's neck, a memory of his time on Warbler. How awful, to be reminded of that every day. He was examining Sam's dark hair- sort of wavy-curly, and shorter on the back and the sides- when a voice startled them both.

"Ahem."

They both spun around, though Sam didn't budge his arms from the bookshelf.

Alex's eyes narrowed as he searched for the source of the voice, and located it when it spoke again.

"I know it is none of my business-" It was a blackboard, leaning against the wall, on the floor in a corner, lying forgotten behind piles of broken furniture and cast-aside objects.

"-but it is my most humble opinion that you are both chumps." The blackboard's face pushed out of the board a little further. Its voice was nasal, whiny, and exceedingly annoying.

"What are you talking about?" Samheed growled, scrutinizing the board fiercely.

"I'm talking about the fact that you ought to admit that you like one another and get a room!" the blackboard shouted.

Alex's eyes bugged out of his head.

"Wha- What?" he sputtered.

Samheed pulled away and started marching over to the offending board. "You don't know what you're talking about!" he snarled.

"I know more than you do!" the blackboard countered matter-of-factly in its tinny voice. "I've seen and heard quite enough, thank you, and it is quite painful for me to see and hear any more! Shoo! GO!"

Samheed scowled, and Alex realized that he looked about ready to snap the board in half. Then Sam turned away from the blackboard, ignoring it as best he could, though it continued to spout variations on the word 'leave'- 'scram', 'scat', etc.- and walked right back to Alex, as if he'd never moved.

"So-"

"Do you-"

They spoke at the exact same time, then laughed. Samheed stared to the side in embarrassment, and Alex gestured vaguely at him. "You go first."

"No, you," Samheed returned.

"Okay . . ." Alex paused, barely believing what he was about to do, and then he leaned forward.

And kissed Sam.

Samheed's eyes widened, and he kissed Alex back. He stepped even closer, pushing Alex up against the shelf, one hand sliding down the wall and threading through his tangled, frizzy hair, the other dropping to Alex's waist, pulling him closer yet somehow pushing him back at the same time. Samheed's lips were soft and warm and a little chapped- he chewed on them a lot, especially when he was writing. Finally, they pulled away when they heard the blackboard, still nattering in the background- "-oh, and of course they're going to stay here. Of course! Why is it always me and my poor eyes? What did I do to deserve this? Why- OUCH!"

He broke off with a shout as Sam threw a book at him. "You're annoying, that's what you did. Come on Al, let's go."

And Samheed marched out of the Museum of Large and back into the really-barely-a-secret-at-all-hallway, holding the grinning Alex's hand all the while.


End file.
